Local artist Ben Yeates used a chainsaw to carve animals into a tree brought down by high winds.
Whitwell: Tree stump transformed into woodland sculpture
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Kings Hill: Apple sculpture celebrating community unveiled
The five metre tall installation is called Slice of Peace.
Club News: NWA Senior Democrats meet; Photography club hosts speaker; Perfect Harmony celebrates 25 years of singing
SUVCW
The General McPherson Camp No. 1 of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War will meet at 7 p.m. April 15 at Foghorn’s, 2221 W. Walnut St. in Rogers. The group will gather at 6 p.m. for an off-the-menu meal.
The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War is a patriotic organization made up of descendants of members of the United States Army, Navy, Marine Corps or Revenue Service or who served as government officials during the Civil War, 1861-65. SUVCW members can offer assistance for those seeking to establish membership eligibility and associate memberships are available.
Information: [email protected].
NWA Senior Democrats
The Northwest Arkansas Senior Democrats will meet at noon April 16 at Eat My Catfish, 32 W. Joyce Blvd. in Fayetteville. Come early to socialize and eat beginning at 11:30 a.m. The meal is $13.99 plus tax. It will be a buffet with both grilled fish and chicken options, plus traditional fried foods. The restaurant will collect the money.
Jennifer Waymack Standerfer, one of the drafters of the FOIA ballot initiative and the constitutional amendment, will discuss why both FOIA actions are needed.
Reservations: (479) 841-5266 or [email protected].
Photography Club
The Bella Vista Photography Club will meet from 6:30 to 8 p.m. April 18 at the First Community Bank, 21196 U.S. 71 in Pineville, Mo.
The speaker will be member, Doug Keck. The topic of his presentation will be video photography. The Bella Vista Photography Club is designed for photographers of all levels from Bella Vista, Bentonville and surrounding area. Speakers, field trips and other activities promote the development of skills and friendships. There are monthly contests, and an annual contest with the winners publicly displayed.
Information: bellavistapc.org.
Quilt Guild
The Calico Cut-Ups Quilt Guild will meet at 1 p.m. April 22 in Sengel Hall at St. Theodore’s Episcopal Church, 1001 Kingsland Road in Bella Vista.
The speaker will be Mary Honas, owner of First Rate Designs, who will travel from Overland Park, Kan. Honas’ lecture and trunk show is titled Color, Value, Scale and Intensity. She states: “Color is an important part of the quilt design. Through quilts shown, the various aspects of color are explored for best results. See how intensity and value make a quilt shine.” Honas will also have several of her original quilt patterns for sale. On April 23, she will teach two workshops, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The morning workshop is: Quilting with a Walking Foot. The afternoon workshop is Free Motion Quilting. You may sign up for one or both workshops. The cost will be $30 for one workshop or $45 if you sign up for both.
Information: [email protected].
Senior Democrats
The Senior Democrats of Benton County will meet at noon April 22 at the Golden Corral, 2605 W. Pleasant Crossing Drive in Rogers. Lunch will be available beginning at 11 a.m. The event is sponsored by the Democratic Party of Benton County.
Speakers will be candidates for the Arkansas House of Representatives, Kate Schaffer, District 10 and Stephanie Funk, District 15.
Information: [email protected],
Hill Hikers
The Ozark Hill Hikers, affiliated with the American Volkssport Association, invite all interested walkers to join them for a walk April 24 in Little Rock. Registration is from 1 to 1:30 p.m. at the Curran Visitor’s Center at 615 E. Capitol in Little Rock.
The walk includes the State Capitol Building, Old State House, Governor’s Mansion and Clinton Presidential Library. Two pedestrian bridges across the Arkansas River provide a panoramic view.
There is a fee of $4 for all walkers. Membership dues to the Ozark Hill Hikers are $12 a year prorated $1 for each month remaining in the calendar year.
Information: (479) 381-9366 email [email protected].
Perfect Harmony
Perfect Harmony is celebrating 25 years of singing together at 3 p.m. April 28 at Highland’s Christian Church, 1500 Forest Hills Blvd. in Bella Vista.
In 1999 Karen Frankenfeld was asked to start a women’s barbershop chorus in Bella Vista after the Sweet Adeline chorus lost its director. The vision of the newly formed chorus was to not only create a musical outlet for women, but also provide an opportunity to have fun singing and entertaining others.
Women’s Barbershop Choruses have four sections: lead and tenor which would be for higher voices, baritone and bass for those with lower voices. Frankenfeld researches a wide variety of music that is arranged in the four-part barbershop style before selecting a song for the chorus to sing.
The chorus’s portfolio may include classics from the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s, modern pop, seasonal songs, patriotic, gospel and novelty numbers. Some songs give her an opportunity to add a special touch to the arrangement and to let the women have a little fun with it for audience appeal.
Perfect Harmony Women’s Barbershop Chorus is a fun loving, energetic women’s a cappella group in Bella Vista. There are no try outs, no previous musical experience necessary to join. The chorus invites women of all ages and voice ranges to visit a rehearsal and experience barbershop singing.
Information: (479) 876-7204.
Youth Ambassadors
Lily Maples was recently elected as the President for Bo’s Blessings Youth Ambassadors.
Maples believes in serving veterans in all ways possible. She knows it is important to give back to those who gave all and were willing to do so. Her vision for Bo’s Blessings Youth Ambassadors is for them to be more than observers or just people who admire the work of others, rather she wants the youth to be hard-working and wanting to serve.
Also elected were Max Williams, vice president, Cate Stearman, secretary and Levi Lockwood, photographer.
Information: [email protected].
The Garden Club of Rogers will hold their 49th Annual Plant Sale from 8 a.m. to noon May 4 in the parking lot of Grace Baptist Church on New Hope Road in Rogers. The plant sale is rain or shine. There will be perennials, house plants, shrubs, trees and some vegetable plants. All will be reasonably priced. Cash, Check or Credit card accepted. (Courtesy Photo)Norwich photographer hopes to open conversations on mental health
Photography project ‘breaks the stigma’ on trauma
Markets photography project ‘breaks the stigma’ on trauma
28th Annual Los Alamos Photographers’ Show Opens April 15 In Step Up Gallery At Mesa Public Library
STEP UP GALLERY NEWS RELEASE
The Los Alamos Photographers’ Club is hosting its 28th Annual Los Alamos
Photographers’ Show April 15 – May 14 in Step Up Gallery at Mesa Public Library. The
public is invited to attend the Opening Reception on Monday, April 15 from 5:30 –
7:00pm in Step Up Gallery. Refreshments will be served.
The exhibit includes a wide variety of approaches to photography with subjects ranging
from expansive landscape and skyscape vistas to wild animals, exotic vegetation and
flowers to international portraits and architectural compositions. In addition to
highlighting the current work of Los Alamos Photo Club members, the opportunity was
given to other photographers who live or work in the Los Alamos area to enter the
exhibit as well.
More information about the club is on the LAPC website: lapc.groups.io.
The public is also invited to attend a Guided Tour of the exhibit on Tuesday, April 23 rd
from 5:30 – 7:30pm when photographers will guide visitors through the exhibit
discussing technique, equipment, and approaches to various subjects.
Step Up Gallery is located on the top floor of Mesa Public Library, 2400 Central Ave.,
Los Alamos. The gallery is open the same hours as the library: 10am – 8pm, Monday –
Thursday; 10am – 6pm, Friday, 10am – 5pm on Saturday, and 1pm – 5pm on Sunday.
Admission is free.
Photographer coming to Hawai‘i will capture islands’ roller derby culture with classic style
Past and present will collide on the rink this summer, when a California photographer visits Hawai‘i to document the state’s roller derby teams using 19th-century technology.
Brittany R. Bradley employs the wet-plate collodion process to create modern-day examples of ambrotypes and tintypes – vintage photographs familiar to anyone who’s visited a history museum or watched a Civil War documentary.
“There is some strangeness and some ethereal quality to the images. The way it comes out of the camera is the way that it is,” said Bradley. “You get a closer representation of what the person actually looks like than you do in our digital age of filters and image modification.
“People are forced to look at themselves more kindly and more accurately during that process,” she continued. “I also love this idea of making a physical object in a time when images are no longer physical things.”
Bradley, who lives in San Jose and works full-time as a museum collections registrar, has studied photography since childhood; her father was a hobbyist. In 2017, she flew to Rochester, New York (perhaps appropriately, the home of Kodak) to learn the collodion process from a master before making the technique her own.
Since then, she has built a portfolio depicting individuals often unseen in early photography, which was almost exclusively the domain of wealthy white men. Her work includes photographs of Indigenous protesters, LGBTQ+ communities and the Women’s March.
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Bradley first encountered roller derby – a contact sport on skates, in which teams play offense and defense simultaneously while barrelling around a circuit – in 2016 and joined a team three years later.
“I fell in love with the team. I fell in love with the sport. I fell in love with skating,” said Bradley. “I fell in love with how bad I was at it and how every single practice I got just a little tiny bit better, and I was hooked from then on.”
Offbeat, often punny nicknames are fundamental to the world of roller derby. Bradley’s moniker is SpeeDSM.
“The way this community shows up for each other: I’ve never seen anything like it … I’d never been a part of a community that was ever quite as tight-knit as that, and really the only defining thing that ties them all together is that they play this sport,” she said.
Over time, Bradley had an epiphany, setting her on the path that will take her to Hawai‘i later this year.
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“The longer I played, the more I realized that the communities that are served and represented in roller derby overlap with the communities that were underserved and underrepresented in photography at its inception,” she said. “You have a sport that in the face of nationwide bans on trans athletes has said, ‘F– you, trans athletes have always been a part of our sport. They’re not going anywhere.’
“It’s one of the only sports that competes at a high level with coed teams that have men, women and nonbinary folks all playing together without any complaint,” Bradley continued. “The definition of what an athlete is in roller derby, and what an athlete looks like, is not like any other sport: If you can skate and you push yourself and you’re willing to show up for your team members, you are an athlete.”
Bradley began photographing California roller derby teams in May 2023 and is now in communication with teams throughout the state of Hawai‘i, where she has longtime bonds. (Her godchildren live on Kaua‘i.) Several teams – including the Garden Island Renegade Rollerz, Aloha Skate, Big Island Roller Derby and Pacific Roller Derby – have already agreed to be photographed in September during the annual Battle of the Islands roller derby tournament on the Big Island.
Bradley’s roller derby art – which often possesses a joyous, spontaneous quality – will be a departure from most depictions of the sport, according to some skaters.
“Unfortunately, it gets the WWE treatment. It’s always very aggressive, rough, dangerous and competitive, and I don’t feel like that’s the case at all,” said Nanea “Nuke Starblocker” Walker, president of the Renegade Rollerz. “A lot of it is very accepting and loving. The bond that we share – not just with our own teammates, but other teams from around the state or around the country or around the world. It’s a huge community of very loving women.”
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Bambi “Bamz” Lau is a member of Big Island Roller Derby and Aloha Skate, a recently formed statewide team featuring the best and most competitive skaters from throughout the Hawaiian Islands. She wants Bradley’s snapshots to capture players when they leave their brash alter egos on the rink.
“I hope to reveal the human, mother, teacher, Hawaiian … everyday side of the roller derby skater,” Bamz said. “The roller derby community is extremely diverse.”
Bradley plans to conclude her roller derby project – which will culminate with an exhibition and a book – sometime next year. She still has many more places to go, including Las Vegas, where she hopes to photograph international skaters at RollerCon in July; and Washington and Oregon in August. Teams from Louisiana, Texas, Florida and even Australia have also reached out to express interest.
“I will go as far as I can, and include as many teams and skaters as I can,” said Bradley, who is traveling on her own dime with an antique camera and a portable darkroom.
“I don’t know of a better way to express the resiliency of roller derby … than looking at Hawaiian teams,” she continued. “Roller derby is punk rock and bootstrap at its best, and they’re doing that in a smaller pond than anyone else.
“They’re succeeding at it and keeping it alive, and so for me, it just made absolute perfect sense that this project include the Hawaiian teams from the jump.”
To follow Bradley on her roller derby photography journey, follow her on Instagram and TikTok or visit her website here.
The Garden Island Renegade Rollerz are holding a Krispy Kreme fundraiser on April 27. For more information including fundraising locations, follow the team on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
You can find Aloha Skate online on Facebook and Instagram. The team is planning to host a new tournament this November in Waimea on the Big Island.
Andhra Pradesh: 11-year-old’s photography skills leave everyone in awe!
GUNTUR: In line with the saying – “A photograph answers 100 questions and reveals unsung stories and themes”, a 11-year-old child prodigy, V Harshil Kiran, has excelled in the field of photography, winning countless accolades and various awards at national platforms, leaving everyone in awe.
A seventh standard student, Harshil, is a native of Guntur city who is winning everyone’s hearts with his wildlife and bird photography skills.
Inspired by his father’s passion for wildlife photography, Harshil said, “I like taking photographs because it helps us think creatively and connect with nature.” Among several wildlife pictures, the photos of landing pelican birds at Uppalapadu Bird Sanctuary gained him national fame. His father V Kiran Kumar, deputy inspector general in the Registration and Stamps Department, is also an ace photographer who won various medals at art galleries and earned himself quite a reputation for his wildlife photography.
“I was always fascinated with wildlife and wildlife photography is more than a hobby for me and I’m so happy my son also found his calling in it,” opined Kiran Kumar. Harshil’s journey in capturing wildlife with his lens started when he was nine years old, during Covid-19 pandemic.
The market of art making | Special Report
ince its invention in 1839 until the last decades of the Twentieth Century, photography has been a privileged profession requiring a skill, gadgets (often expensive and imported), professional knowledge and a space to produce a picture. Photography studios provided one’s identity – for affixing on official papers, like passports, national identity cards, driving licences, domiciles, visa documents, etc. But after the circulation of smartphones and digital media, the previously used chemicals, photo-sensitive papers, printing laboratories, dark rooms and photographer’s speciality (power) have turned dysfunctional, are abandoned, and appear unnecessary.
In the selfie mode, today, one has become the model, photographer, director, editor and client. Perhaps, the structure of the art market may soon follow the same course. Traditionally, galleries have had the power (monopoly) to forge the careers of artists, by agreeing to exhibit their creations. So, people not familiar with the name or style of an emerging or unknown artist come and see his/ her work on display, to admire, acquire or reject. In order to help the creative individuals (and as a business strategy), gallerists manage a perfect order of installation, invite a lot of viewers – and potential buyers, print artist’s brief but impressive bio-data, artistic statements and frequently engage curators to add a new angle to the pieces made – usually without any link or cohesion while made in the artist’s messy, crowded and unkempt studio.
Some of them take a step further and contact art critics, reviewers and journalists to cover the exhibitions for print media, hoping to get positive and fruitful feedback. They also, invite important personalities from the press, other artists, prominent collectors and the art academia to dinner after the inauguration of the show. Efforts are made to promote, project and elevate the artist, because the more successful the artist, the more prosperous the gallery. This phenomenon is not specific to one city or country, but spread across the globe.
However, with the inception of social media networks, for instance X (formerly known as Twitter), Instagram and other platforms, now a maker of art is not solely dependent on the support of an art gallery, expertise of a curator or the word of a pen-pusher. He/ she can be a self-exhibitor, dealer, curator, commentator and the PR manager. Viewing is also not limited to a gallery’s inclusive invitee/ patrons list, or a certain art audience. It has expanded to regions far in distance and time. One may spot a work added on an artist’s page some years back, and decide to approach the maker situated thousands of miles away, to negotiate the price, matters of packing, schedule of shipping and the method of payment.
Art as a form of investment is a relatively new concept in our midst.
If this recent development has liberated a creative person to an extent, it has also hampered the quality of art. Any art teacher can testify that when asked about their inspirations, influences and references, most graduating artists cite unheard names who happen to be excessively visible on the Internet. The democratisation of art is commendable, but it has also eclipsed the discerning eye. One can call it discrimination based upon some (probably false) criteria. Buying books is one example of this process of value judgment. A browser on a bookstall cannot read the entire content of a 200-page book to determine if it’s worth buying or not, but a familiar author, a reputed publisher, a few blurbs on the cover and back-cover help towards taking a decision, which may prove wrong
at the end and the book disappointing and yet are necessary to pick one from hundreds of unknown titles.
If a new artist is able to exhibit works at an established gallery, known for representing major and significant practitioners, visitors would be inclined to attend the exhibition. This may open a whole new avenue – both for the buyer and the maker. Hence, the long list of recent graduates applying for group shows and solo exhibitions at a respected gallery. The gallery of high standing can guide a collector too in building a valuable (in every sense of the word) collection.
Collectors are a varied lot in Pakistan, not only in their taste, but in their approaches and origins as well. Some started filling their walls with original (unique) articles, some purchased for their personal likes, some on the recommendation of friends and professionals. But many of them have evolved into serious buyers, researching artists’ careers, future prospects, besides formal issues such as style, imagery, content. A number of collectors, comparatively young, have been concentrating on unknown artists who have demonstrated great promise at an early stage. Thus, one of them acquired a majority of the artwork from Waqas Khan’s first exhibition in Karachi for reasonable prices. Those are now worth a lot more money than what he paid. Likewise, people who got early Salman Toors from his exhibitions are now proud of their great investment.
Art as a form of investment is a relatively new concept in our midst. Thus, people purchase plots of land, get gold biscuits, put their money in the stock market, but seldom consider art as a means of making huge bucks. Although a small work on paper of an artist graduated in 1994 that was bought in 1995 for Rs 1,500 from his first solo show in Lahore, is now estimated at Rs 3 million. Compared to property, jewellery and cash, artworks in Pakistan are generally safe. Some years ago, an artist in Lahore created a piece of conceptual art, by composing 6 currency notes of Rs 5,000 each. The work was later sent to a gallery in Karachi. After a few months some gallery staff took Rs 30,000 away and left the empty frame, without realising that several other artworks in the same storage place were worth much more.
In present times, with NFTs circulating in the art market, the possibility of an artwork being stolen is not imminent, but one wonders if with the danger of theft suspended, artistic value of an artwork may also be decreasing.
The writer is an art critic, curator and a professor at the School of Visual Arts and Design at the Beaconhouse National University, Lahore
